Earth Day: Google dedicates its doodle to the damage of climate change

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Google dedicate his doodle to the Earth day which is celebrated on April 22 around the world. It is a date promoted by US Senator Gaylord Nelson, with the aim of making the population aware of the various forms of pollution, deforestation and other human actions that are damaging the planet.

On this occasion, the doodle focuses on the damage caused by climate change. Using real time-lapse images of Google Earth Timelapse and other sources, the graph shows the impact of climate change over the years.

During the day the images will be changed to show up to 4 different places and the modifications of their landscapes. Each scene will stay on the home page for a few hours and then change to another.

In turn, when pressing on the doodle, the search engine takes you to a page where you can find 6 prominent buttons with the following legends: summary, causes, effects, actions, news and videos. By clicking on each of them, information related to that theme appears.

Google Earth Timelapse and initiatives to combat climate change

Google Earth Timelapse It was created from 24 million satellite photos taken over 37 years. This allows us to see the cumulative effects that human activities have on the planet. Upon entering the site you can see the impact of pollution on the oceans, cities and forests; as well as some initiatives to help reduce these damages or to prevent them from further deepening.

The site highlights that populations in cities have grown exponentially over the last 35 years and this has also brought with it an increase in global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

“In an effort to help people and local governments understand the impacts of emissions in their cities, we created Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), a tool that provides emissions estimates and reduction opportunities for thousands of cities around the world, which helps to establish the bases for effective climate action”, is mentioned on the Google page.

Forests absorb about a third of the CO2 emitted by fossil fuels each year. However, almost half of the world’s forests have been replaced by cities. The company contains information on its site about different non-profit organizations that have been supported in their work to protect, restore and manage forests to reverse the damage caused to date.

The oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and are important for balancing CO2 what is in the atmosphere. But with global warming, sea levels have been rising disproportionately. Hence the importance of carrying out initiatives to raise awareness and act on this aspect.

In this sense, two projects that have been carried out with this objective are shared. On one side is Global Fishing Watch, which applies machine learning to vessel movements using the Google Cloud Platform to bring transparency to the creation and monitoring of new marine protected areas to help restore the oceans.

On the other hand, the immersive experience called Diving into an Acidifying Ocean, developed by artist Cristina Tarquini at Google Arts & Culture. This data-driven project shows how the pH levels of the ocean are changing its acidity and should be protected.